SENESCHAL (the O. Fr. form, mod. sénéchal, of the Low
Lat. senescalcus, a word of Teutonic origin, meaning “ old
or senior servant, ” Goth. sini- old; cf. Lat. senex and scalks,
servant; Du Cange's derivation from seneste, Bock, herd, must
be rejected), the title of an official equivalent to “steward.”
The seneschal began presumably by being the major-domo of
the German barbarian princes who settled in the empire, and
was therefore the predecessor of the mayors of the palace of the
Merovingian kings. But the name seneschal became prominent
in France under the third or Capetian dynasty. The seneschal,
called in medieval Latin the dapifer (from daps, a feast, and
ferre, to carry), was the chief of the five great officers of state of
the French court between the 11th and the 13th centuries, the
others being the butler, the chamberlain, the constable and the
chancellor. His functions were described by the term major
regiae domus, and regni Franciae procurator-major-domo of
the royal household, and agent of the kingdom of France. The
English equivalent was the lord high steward, but the office never
attained the same importance in England as in France. Under
the earlier Capetian sovereigns the seneschal was the second
person in the kingdom. He inherited the power and position
of the mayor of the palace-had a general right of supervision
over the king's service, was commander-in-chief of the military
forces (princeps rnilitiae regis, or Francorurn), was steward of
the household and presided in the king's court in the absence
of the king. Under weak rulers the seneschal would no doubt
have played the same part as the mayors of the palace of the
Carolingian line. It was the vast possibilities of the office which
must be presumed to have tempted the counts of Anjou of the
Plantagenet line to claim the hereditary dapifership of France,
and to support their claim by forgeries. A count of Anjou
who was also in effective possession of the office would soon
have reduced his feudal lord to absolute insignificance. French
historical scholars have shown that the pretension of the Anjevins
was unfounded, and. that the treatise concocted to support itthe
De rnajoratu et senescalia Franciae, attributed to Hugues
de Cléres-is a medieval forgery. At the close of the 1 1th century
the seneschalship was in the hands of the family of Rochefort,
and in the early part of the following century it passed from them
to the family of Garlande. The power of the office wasaperpetual
temptation to the vassal, and a cause of jealousy to the king.
The Garlandes came to open conflict with the king, and were
forcibly suppressed by Louis VI. in 1127. After their fall the
seneschalship was conferred only on great feudatories who were
the king's kinsmen-on Raoul of Vermandois till 1152, and on
Thibaut of Blois till 1191. From that time forward no seneschal
was appointed except to act as steward at the coronation of the
king. The name of the seneschal was added with those of the
other great officers to the kings in charters, and when the office
was not filled the words dapijero vacante were written instead.
The great vassals had seneschals of their own, and when the
great iiefs, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Poitou, Saintonge, Guienne,
were regained by the crown, the office was allowed to survive
by the king. In the south of France, Périgord, Quercy, Toulouse,
Agenais, Rouergue, Beaucaire and Carcassonne were royal
sénéohaussées. In Languedoc the landlords' agent and judicial
officer, known in the north of France as a bailli, was called
sénéchal. The office and title existed till the Revolution.
See Du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infirnae Latinilatis (Paris, 1840-1850);
A. Luchaire, Histoire des institutions rnonarchiques de la
France sous les prerniers Capétiens (Paris, 1883-1885); Manuel des
institutions françaises (Paris, 1892); Paul Viollet, Droit publique-Hist.
des institutions politiques et adrninistratives de la France (Paris,
1890-1898). f

SENIGALLIA, or Sinigaglia (anc. Sena Gallica), a city and
episcopal see of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Ancona,
on the coast of the Adriatic, 15 m. by rail N. of Ancona. Pop.
(1901) 5556 (town), 23,195 (commune). It is situated at 14 ft.
above sea-level, and, despite its ancient origin, presents a modern
appearance, with wide streets. The Palazzo Comunale dates
from the 17th century. The cathedral was erected after 1787.
The castle, of Gothic origin, was restored by Baccio Pontelli,
a famous military architect, in 1492. The church of S Maria
delle Grazie outside the town is one of the only two churches
which he is known to have executed (the other is at Orciano
near Mondavio, about 15 m. to the west by road). The small
port is formed by the lower reaches of the Misa, a stream which
fiows through the town between embankments constructed
of Istrian marble. The inhabitants are chietiy occupied in
fishing, and in the summer the town is greatly frequented by
visitors for the good sea-bathing. Senigallia used to hold one
of the largest fairs in Italy, which dated originally from 1200,
when Sergius, count of Senigallia, received from the count of
Marseilles, to whose daughter he was affianced, certain relics
of Mary Magdalene; this fair used to be visited by merchants
from France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and especially the
Levant. Senigallia is the residence of the Mastai-Ferretti
family; the house in which Pope Pius IX. was born is preserved,
and contains a few memorials of him.

The ancient Sena Gallica was a city of Umbria. A colony
was founded there by the Romans after their victory over the
Senones, rather before 280 B.C. The place is also mentioned
in connexion with Hasdrubal's defeat at the Metaurus (q.v.)
in 207, B.C. It was destroyed by Pompey in 82 B.C., and is not
often mentioned afterwards. No ancient remains and very few
inscriptions exist. The name Gallica distinguishes it from
Saena (Siena) in Etruria. Ravaged by Alaric, fortified by the
exarch Longinus, and again laid waste by the Lombards in the
8th century and by the Saracens in the 9th, Senigallia was at
length brought so low by the Guelph and Ghibelline wars,
and especially by the severities of Guido de Montefeltro, that it
was chosen by Dante as the typical instance of a ruined city.
In the 15th century it was captured and recaptured again and
again by the Malatesta and their opponents. Sigismondo
Malatesta of Rimini erected strong fortifications round the town
in 1450–1455. The lordship of Senigallia was bestowed by
Pius II. on his nephew Antonio Piccolomini, but the people
of the town in 1464 placed themselves anew under Paul II.,
and Giacomo Piccolomini in 1472 failed in his attempt to
seize the place. Sixtus IV. assigned the lordship to the Della
Rovere family, from whom it was transferred to Lorenzo de
Medici in 1516. After 1624 it formed part of the legation of
Urbino.